Magic?

It had been a week since Alma had moved into HQ and the mood hanging over the place had lightened at the new addition to the family. Link - or Howard as they now called him - had become closer to the exorcists that he had moved in with since the end of the war. Often seen hanging out with Lenalee and Lavi, he had settled in with the duo as Alma had with Allen and Kanda. The six of them were in one of the sealed gardens as Timothy came to join them.

"Hey Tiedoll's trying to force more geometry in my throat, can I hang with you guys?" he grimaced and, after receiving an affirmative, joined them on the grass. They had all watched the boy grow up into the (annoyingly) tall 15 year old that he had become. And they had all been relieved to find that he had not been too traumatised by growing up surrounded by a supernatural war.

"Did Miranda and Alyster betray you then?" Howard quipped with a smirk.

"Learning is important for growing boys" Timothy mocked Krory's accent and snooty face and the blonde chuckled - it sounded about right.

"I mean he's technically not wrong" Lenalee defended her friend.

"Yeah but learning should be fun, not shoved down your throat" Lavi took the teens side and she rolled her eyes.

"What's geometry?" Allen asked and Alma and Kanda also looked perplexed. Lavi began to explain maths as Timothy fell back into Howard's lap with a grimace, the blonde snickering at the boys dramatics as he stroked his hair.

Eventually, Alma's concentration began to wane and he threaded his hands in the long grasses, daydreaming. That was, until something really weird happened.

"Hey Yuu, watch this!" Kanda turned to watch his old friend and his eyes widened in shock as Alma waved his hand over a flower, seemingly making it change colour.

"How did you do that?" he asked, leaning forward to get a closer look. Alma shrugged.

"I just thought that white flowers were boring and wished it was pink and it was!" he beamed.

Allen paused his conversation with Lavi about triangles to watch as Alma gave another demonstration.

"You try it Yuu!" Alma encouraged the samurai who looked at him with wary eyes at the request. But eventually he gave into the boy's puppy eyes and closed his eyes, holding his hand over a white daisy.

'Make it blue' he wished and he jumped back as a shock of power seemed to flash through his hand. He was almost scared to open his eyes.

"Wow you can do it too!" Allen breathed, far too close to his ear and Kanda whipped round, smacking the albino in the face with his ponytail.

"Ow but fair" Allen chuckled as he cautiously opened his eyes. "But look" and Allen guided Kanda's eyes to the now blue flower.

"Whoa! Can I try too?" Timothy had gotten up from lying in Howard's lap and was now staring at the boys with sparkling eyes.

"Sure?" Alma said. And suddenly everyone was trying the new flower rainbow trick - with mixed success.

Timothy made a patch of grass grow an inch, Lenalee accidently burned her flower, Allen caused his flower to disperse its petals into a dance but Howard and Lavi had nothing.

"Magic huh? Guess that's something I can only read about" Lavi murmured and Howard and Tim looked at him, one in understanding, the other in confusion.

"Can't everyone have magic?" Tim asked and Lavi shook his head.

"Only those born with magic can perform it. Others are just tricks and mind games" the red head explained.

"Oh" the teen suddenly became awkward, realising that two of his friends were missing out. Lavi turned to the others who had succeeded.

"Have you guys managed to do other things that you shouldn't have been since the Innocence disappeared?" he asked. They all paused to think about it.

Lenalee was the first to admit,

"I managed to wish my brother's favourite mug into being fixed after I dropped it last week." Timothy went second,

"There's a couple of times that I swear I managed to vanish textbooks when I really didn't want to do a lesson"

Alma added,

"I managed to end up on the roof after getting chased by a bunch of dogs. And I didn't jump - one minute I was in the forest, the next - roof"

Kanda stared at his hands silently before saying,

"I was having a dream about my old Lotus and I found that my jug of water turned into their petals" Alma and Allen winced, knowing the connection of the flower.

"Allen?" Alma turned to the final success of the magic flowers to find that he had paled more than usual.

"Moyashi?" Kanda put a hand on his shoulder, "What happened?" his voice was the softest that any of them had ever heard it. Allen let the tears fall,

"I - I had a bit of a meltdown and - I cut my hair. But - by the next morning, it grew back twice the length. I'm surprised none of you commented to be honest" he struggled through the explanation.

That night had been his lowest moment. Everyone seemed to have returned to normal and here he was still with his pentacle and old man hair. His arm had seemingly resumed some normalcy, being the part actually affected by the Innocence. But the curse had stayed. He kept silent about the clawing of his still scarred eye which had magically healed the next morning. Kanda seemed to see right through him and he shamefully looked away.

"We noticed but we thought we were imagining it" Lenalee turned to Lavi for confirmation who nodded.

"Oh Allen" Lenalee pulled him into a hug as he tried to hide his tears. Alma, Lavi and Tim also joined in comforting the boy as Howard looked on in shock and Kanda wondered what it was he wasn't telling them.

He leaned back onto the grass, looking at the moving clouds. Magic, huh? Just when he thought that things would be 'normal' for the first time in his life, something else came up. Maybe he was never destined to live a boring life. None of them were - except Lavi and Howard apparently. He glanced over to see how the blonde had reacted to his lack of powers. The man seemed more relieved than anything else. Howard caught the samurai looking at him and looked back.

"How are you coping with this revelation?" he asked him quietly. Kanda sighed,

"I've accepted that my life is destined to be devoid of the mundane" Allen overheard his comment and laughed after expelling all of his tears.

"I second that" he joked and Lenalee, Tim and Alma chimed in with their own

"Hear, hear" and they all lay in the garden until Tiedoll finally came looking for his escaped pupil.